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New exhibition
Eighty photographs on display until September 15th
Cutting of the ribbon. Authority together with Gianni Berengo Gardin at the Alessandria exhibition
by Enrico Sozzetti
“Things never seen before”. This is precisely the case to say it. The Art Rooms of Alessandria, in via Machiavelli 13, host around eighty images by Gianni Berengo Gardin until 15 September. Born in Santa Margherita Ligure in 1930, he is considered one of the best-known Italian photographers and over the course of his career he created 263 books.
The latest dates back to 2023 when, together with his daughter Susanna, he reviewed the entire archive, selecting 114 images, only five of which were previously published. And thus the “Things Never Seen” exhibition was born. The unpublished photographs, published by the Contrasto publishing house and presented for the first time at the Ma.Co.F in Brescia last year, arrived in Alessandria thanks to Giovanna Calvenzi and Susanna Berengo Gardin who propose a different selection with around sixty “things never seen” and a prevalent attention to men and women that Berengo Gardin met during his life. Images, not published, which testify to the “extraordinary mastery” of the photographer. The shots were taken from 1954 to 2023 in Italy and France, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, Norway, Moscow, China, Japan, London and New York.
Also on display is an unpublished section of photographs by Berengo Gardin taken in 1994 on the occasion of the historical re-enactment of the Battle of Marengo at Villa Delavo.
Berengo likes to say that “it doesn’t matter ‘how’ you photograph but what you photograph”, a declaration of intent, underline the organizers of the exhibition, which underlines the humility with which he talks about his work.
The images are part of the collections of museums and cultural foundations including the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica and the Maxxi in Rome, the Moma in New York, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Musée de l’ Elysée in Lausanne, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
The solo show, created by Costruire Insieme and the Municipality of Alessandria, together with Alexala and the contribution of the Cra Foundation, is open from Thursday to Sunday from 3pm to 7pm (tickets: full price 5 euros, reduced 3).
